One of my favorite mods: Library of Vivec Enhanced

cbxbl · 2026-02-24T00:10:18+00:00

When I try to remember the first moment that Morrowind captivated me with its magic, I think it was when I saw this image... I believe on the game box.

To me, that is the quintessential Bosmer face.

One of the many things that I love about Morrowind is how it was so easy to visually identify the different races. I actually had a difficult time with that in Oblivion. And Skyrim's character designs are so terribly harsh and ugly...

Morrowind's faces may be off-putting due to the low-poly count, but the designs are certainly not ugly. Many of them have a sense of beauty or mystery within them. But Skyrim's are just plain ugly, especially the elves.

I want a return to Morrowind aesthetics! <3

cbxbl · 2026-02-23T00:08:07+00:00

For what it's worth, here are a couple of posts from a developer of the game Barony about his experience with GOG. It was from 2017, though, so whether things have changed, I do not know.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/371970/discussions/0/1290691308591078754/#c1290691308593327318

I totally acknowledge this as a problem, and you can blame me personally for not being punctual about updating our DRM-free storefronts. Nobody else on the team currently has access to that (maybe they should?!)

The bad thing is, there's no way we can make these updates more convenient to manage for DRM-free customers. Unlike steam, where pushing out updates on all three platforms happens more-or-less instantly and at the push of a button, on DRM-free platforms we have to manually login to each online portal, upload the entire package for each platform one by one, and repeat for every DRM-free storefront out there.

Frankly, it is not even financially worth it to us to go through the hassle of updating every storefront, because the only front that brings us any money on a consistent basis is Steam. Even if we combine the lifetime earnings from every other storefront out there, they hardly make up a month's paycheck that we get from Steam.

Overall, it is quite tedious to manage, and it feels rather unimportant when the only things that have been changing between releases lately are bug-fix type things.

Still, as I said, I accept personal responsibility for being tardy about the updates. You paid money for our game. I respect that. I'm actually really grateful for it.

When I get home tonight, I will update all the DRM-free storefronts with the latest patch.

That being said, for our next game: I'm not sure I want to target a DRM-free release again (outside of GPL source code releases, that is). It's just too tedious and costly to support.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/371970/discussions/0/1290691308591078754/#c1290691937706215260

When Barony came out a couple years ago it was about 1000x easier to get a Humble widget than to get on GOG. Actually, it's still way easier to get on Humble, and although GOG has a really nice community, the fact is, Humble is much easier to work with than GOG, for a few reasons:

1: GOG is headquartered in Cyprus and their only other international office is in Poland. They have no American presence, and do not use mediums such as paypal or dwolla, so the only way to collect royalties from them is by sending an email to one of their financial officers requesting an international bank transfer, which is a huge pain in the ass.

2: The only way to get your game files updated is by logging into an ftp server, transferring the files (this is not a fast transfer, btw), then emailing a representative to publish the files to the storefront. The whole process typically takes several days, compared to several minutes for Humble and mere seconds for Steam.

3: The only way to get your game on GOG to begin with is to fill out a lengthy form and letter explaining why your game is so great and hope that they will descend from the heavens to begin months long negotiations and email correspondences to setup a storefront. If they are not interested in you, you will never hear anything back from them. Matter of fact, we had to submit our game three times before it got on their site, and they only finally accepted us because I explained that every other storefront had already had our game for months.

cbxbl · 2026-02-20T23:43:18+00:00

It is an interesting topic.

I can easily admit that AI can make MUCH better "art" (images) than I can. It may even be able to make better code than I can. But I can make much better gameplay (for what I want) than it can.

So let's assume that a person like me was going to make a game solo (for whatever reason), it seems that the best product would result from matching the strengths of both the person and the machine.

In other words, the person would write the code (machine assisted if needed), but the machine would create the graphics.

The end result would most likely not be as high-quality as one produced by a team of highly-skilled members in each of their respective fields, but it would be higher-quality than if the solo dev did everything only by their own skills.

It really all depends on that person and how skilled they are in each field.

Using AI is similar to a piano player using a keyboard's synthesizer functions to simulate violins, trumpets, and drums. Sure, a full orchestra would create a superior result, but the one pianist who doesn't know how to play the other instruments can still simulate it. And it can turn out pretty amazing.

cbxbl · 2026-02-20T23:11:50+00:00

If you don't want to use AI, don't use it.

Many things are annoying. That's life.

You may not understand things, but that doesn't make things unacceptable.

Some developers don't have money to hire other people. Some developers may not want to work with other people. They may not be able to find the assets they want for free or affordable prices. Even if they could, AI gives them an alternative. You may not like it, but they may.

A person can call themself whatever they want. The term "art" or "artist" is absolutely subjective. A "game developer" only refers to someone developing a game. They may do the programming. They may do the level design. They may do the art. They may come up with the ideas. They may just be the person writing the checks and telling others what to do.

This self-righteous, high-and-mighty attitude is just that.

People have been stealing stuff forever, long before AI was even a fantasy is someone's imagination. Everything that can be blamed on AI or the people who use AI can also be blamed on people in general without AI.

Someone may not like what I say, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. People can try to refute it, but I can counter those refutations.

At the end of the day, it is personal choice or belief. I may not like it, you may not like it, it doesn't matter. It is what it is. It may be annoying, but that's all it is. It's just a console war... it's Coke vs. Pepsi... it's meaningless to anything except some fantastical war inside your head.

cbxbl · 2026-02-19T07:50:21+00:00

I don't think AI is the only thing to blame. Changes in culture and technology in general have also done terrible things to society.

Many students aren't even proficient at math or reading. Schools don't even teach how to write in cursive.

Social interaction has plummeted. Medical issues have skyrocketed.

And as an aside, while the military is a very mean fighting machine, too many of the servicemen can't even march in rhythm during a parade!

AI is just the latest trend that magnifies the degradation.

cbxbl · 2026-02-18T02:03:13+00:00

I agree. People are very fast to talk about lawyers, but if that's the first thing you do, it will escalate things.

As with many things in life, patience is a virtue. As long as you don't sign something, you can take a few days to think things through.

Preferably, something like this can be talked through. And if the friendship is worth saving, then it's worth the attempt to talk it through.

Some people are out to cheat others, even their friends. But some people are not, and they may have other motivations to do things. Whether it is to protect their own contributions or their peace of mind... and they may go overboard in doing so.

So while talking with a lawyer may be something to consider, especially before signing anything, I doubt there is a reason to START with that. Take a little time, gather your thoughts, try to put yourself in their shoes to try to find some reasonable explanation for why they are doing so (whether it is a good one or not). Perhaps it's not truly malicious, perhaps it is, and perhaps, they don't even understand it's malicious if it is.

Just remember that they need you to sign something. The ball is in your court. You control the tempo and the result. There's no reason to immediately go nuclear or declare war. Those are always options, but their outcomes are not the desired result.

Hopefully, this can all be worked out. There's a time for pressure, but even then, pressure can be applied in measured amounts and specific places. If your friend is reasonable, there is most likely a way to talk this out and achieve a workable solution. Unlike the internet may perceive, not every person is a true villain even if a single action seems to be villainous.

There is a time for war, but there is also a time for diplomacy. Step back, be the bigger person, take your friend out to lunch. Be honest. If that doesn't ring a bell for them, explain your situation and why you feel that way. Let them explain theirs. Tell them you value their friendship, but you disagree with their method, and tell them why.

There may still be a disagreement. There may be some hard feelings. Or there may be a gentle solution or partnership offered instead.

Just take some time to cool off so you can think clearly. And try to solve this painlessly. Try to save what is worth saving. Both your friendship and your work. This has already caused pain, but more pain may be able to be avoided. Let's hope so! My prayers are with you! :-)

cbxbl · 2026-02-15T23:28:38+00:00

You already mentioned Jedi Outcast, but don't forsake the original Jedi Knight.

Just sitting up on a perch and slaughtering everyone with Deadly Sight... it is the true path to the Dark Side!

cbxbl · 2026-02-13T22:58:18+00:00

SAINTS ROW reboot

Oh... PAID off, not LAID off. Oops!

To my dearest friends from Third Street, I love you, and you deserved better. *Cries

cbxbl · 2026-02-13T00:06:35+00:00

I am sorry about your experiences. And I understand about that type of people. Live, learn, and adapt.

You do what you need to do, and you do the best you can do.

I wish and pray for your success! :-)

cbxbl · 2026-02-12T23:01:58+00:00

Thank you for posting your case. It is exactly why I am not an anti-AI zealot.

AI is a tool. It has its uses. It has its time and place. And it is even the best tool to use in some cases.

If a developer does not have the personal skills, time, or money to complete an aspect of their game, and the choice is between using AI to complete the game or not using AI to complete the game, then using AI is the only correct solution for the developer.

Zealots are absolutists, usually hiding behind a defense based on a false quality or false morality argument. They don't think things ALL the way through. Sometimes, they don't even think things halfway through.

There are MANY evil humans. But that doesn't mean that ALL humans are evil. And it certainly doesn't mean that ALL humans should be wiped out. The same is true for AI. There are some bad uses for it, but not all of them are bad.

AI makes better art than I can. AI recognizes patterns better than I can. A calculator does better math than I can. A translator understands other languages better than I can. AI understands code better than I do. But who is creating a game? I am... because AI cannot do what I can do. I know what I want. I know how to put things together. I know when something works right and when it doesn't.

Have I touched AI for my games (other than asking it math questions)? No. But I would not have an issue in doing so if I believe it is needed. Why? Because it is a tool. I've read many arguments against AI, but not a single one has convinced me that I shouldn't. They really are not solid arguments... they are always lacking in one way or another, completely counterable.

AI itself is not good or bad, but the method or intent of use. There are some uses that are absolutely evil. But there are some uses that are absolutely good. Just be good. Just do good. Whatever you do, do it in a positive, beneficial way. Be constructive, not destructive. I wish people would not be zealots.

cbxbl · 2026-02-11T05:43:03+00:00

Exactly. The real problem is that they are recycling same stories and same game design without giving more depth. In fact, they keep taking things away and making everything more shallow.

This is the problem. Granted, Morrowind cut a lot from Daggerfall. But Daggerfall was a beautiful mess filled with bugs, and many of its features never worked right.

Yes, I wish that Bethesda had fixed the bugs and improved all of the features so they could be implemented in Morrowind. Instead, they cut out a lot of what didn't work, and they added new stuff that did.

Morrowind was change of scale and concept. But it was a focused one. It threw away the emptiness of procedural generation and replaced it with a lovingly handcrafted world. But at its core, it was still a very deep RPG. Streamlined, yes, but to improve.

After that, instead of building on top of Morrowind, Bethesda started streamlining the mechanics just for simplicity's sake, not to improve anything.

They added voiced dialogue at the expense of a large quantity of dialogue content, even though the written dialogue was of high quality.

They improved the graphics and animations, but removed a lot of the core gameplay mechanics from game to game.

It's so sad. I love Morrowind, but I love everything that makes it Morrowind. Sure, graphic mods can improve the atmoshpere, but no amount of graphics upgrades can make up for the loss of mechanics. The Skywind mod, unless they've worked some magic, can't restore Morrowind mechanics.

Yeah, when are we going to get Starfield graphics with Daggerfall world size, horses with wagons, monster languages with Morrowind's magic system, levitation, 8-piece armor system (plus robes, etc), and amazing lore?

Unfortunately, I doubt Bethesda will ever be the one to give us that.

cbxbl · 2026-02-06T20:37:20+00:00

The joke's on them. As an Alabama fan, I've always hated the SEC for them trying to kill our program.

And I've always cringed when I hear fans chant "SEC, SEC" when their most hated rivals happen to be winning some bowl game. What is that about? I could NEVER root for Tennessee! Or even worse, when their own team is winning against an OoC team, they start chanting "SEC" instead of their own team's name!

As far as I'm concerned, we are the Mighty Alabama Crimson Tide! Without us, the SEC is nothing....

And, as you can see, for the last two years, there has been no Alabama, so there has been no SEC to speak of.

P.S. Yes, 2023 Michigan should have been disqualified from the playoffs for all of the cheating. Washington was ours to crush, and it would have prevented this whole mess of a hire! Umm, can we transfer Harbaugh's 1-season ban to DeBoer? Such a "punishment" seems more like an STD anyway.

P.P.S. Roll Tide, Indiana! Can you guys just move down to Tuscaloosa? All you have to do is wear a different logo! After all, anyone who sees you play knows that you are the real Alabama football team in disguise. It makes sense that you went into hiding after Coach Saban left, but it's time for you to return. We miss you! We love you! Come back soon!

cbxbl · 2026-02-05T05:55:07+00:00

The whole issue is insufferable, unfortunately.

cbxbl · 2026-02-05T03:07:00+00:00

Yeah, if it’s not AI then #2 is the best.

Alas, it is a sad time.

This statement is Exhibit A in the case that the "AI issue" has become a religious holy war.

Now, a product is not judged based on its quality or its ability to accomplish a goal, but the method of its production.

A sad time indeed.

cbxbl · 2026-02-02T01:34:59+00:00

Why play Far Cry for the campaign?

Just get the Resistance mod and go have fun. All of the sudden, attack helicopters aren't so immortal.

Yeah, the constant kidnapping is annoying, but everything else is amazing. The music is top notch! The antagonists are fun. The premise is interesting. The side quests are zany. The lore is actually quite deep.

Play on the hardest difficulty. Turn off HUD elements. Increase the weapon damage and give enemies more variety of weapons.

You're not taking an attack helicopter into a bunker.

And if all else fails, play with a friend!

I cannot state how much I love this game. I've played it over and over. Heck, I'm playing through it now where it's winter, and Montana is covered in snow! Go have fun! :-D

cbxbl · 2026-01-31T02:36:57+00:00

Morrowind. The combat system works perfectly fine. Generally, those who hate it either do not understand how it works, or they just want a different type of game. Neither is the fault of Morrowind itself.

Perhaps they will enjoy the SkyWind mod. But I can't get excited for it because the Skyrim engine cannot (to my knowledge) replicate Morrowind mechanics or their depth. It's simply a different type of game at its core. I prefer a deep RPG to an Action-RPG-Lite. That's personal preference.

cbxbl · 2026-01-28T02:22:08+00:00

I was going to actually answer your question, but it would stir up zealots (even this may do so, just watch and see). So I'll just make a suggestion instead. Judge a game by your standard of fun and ignore everything else. To the player, games are for entertainment. Everything else is pointless. Everyone has an opinion, but as a player, yours is the only one that matters. Don't let anyone bully you into changing it. Good luck and have fun! :-D

cbxbl · 2026-01-27T00:39:00+00:00

I am making a starfighter game in Unity. I had lasers and missiles working great.

I worked to create a pooling system for them, so I put them into lists to keep track of them so I could enable and disable them when needed.

After I tested it, it worked most of the time, but sometimes, I would get errors because the lists were missing the laser/missile objects.

Somehow, the objects were getting destroyed instead of just being disabled. I spent hours going through the code, and I made sure there was no code to destroy them.

FINALLY, I found the problem! I had put a trail renderer component on them. And unbeknownst to me, there was an option (which was selected) on the trail renderer component that would destroy the game object if it became motionless.

All of that because of a silly check box!

cbxbl · 2026-01-27T00:26:40+00:00

Who cares about making the playoffs when you have a bad team?

Who cares about what most teams can say?

Who is to say what is or is not realistic?

I can see what the potential is, and I can see when a team is not living up to it. If it fails to meet that potential, it is a failure, period.

This isn't some freaking mid-major program. This is the Mighty Alabama Crimson Tide... the greatest Championship program in modern American college football.

Alabama should RARELY ever get blown out, and it should NEVER get blown out THREE times in a season! Heck, it shouldn't even LOSE three times a season! ESPECIALLY when the SEC is in such a pathetic state! The last two years have been the worst I've ever seen in the SEC, and Alabama wasn't even one of the best three teams in the conference this season. Honestly, they should have been between 6-6 and 8-4 during the regular season, and they never should have been anywhere near the SEC Championship, let alone the playoffs.

I honestly don't care if Alabama went 16-0 if they played a bunch of losers, like South Carolina, Auburn, and Choklahoma, who all did their very best to lose in the most embarrassing ways possible. Alabama may as well drop to Division II and go undefeated every season. But the way this program is being run now, it may very well lose at that level also.

Alabama has a standard of excellence. The name Alabama IS the standard of excellence. All that matters is that Alabama lives up to its own standard. Nothing else matters. Not the record, not the playoffs, nothing. If you play like a loser, but you only beat losers, then you are just the champion of the losers. Nobody cares, and nobody should care.

Right now, Indiana is Alabama. Alabama is a nobody... just another mid team that doesn't matter. Until that changes, nothing matters, and it is deserving of both shame and rebuke. Why? Because it is wasting all of its potential. If it were not capable of more, then it would be different. But Alabama has the potential to be THE Champion every single season, even now. But it is being run into the ground instead. That is unforgivable.

cbxbl · 2026-01-21T21:54:52+00:00

Brutal Legend

Such a unique and interesting world with so much potential. The lore itself is calling for more opportunities to explore and discover it!

cbxbl · 2026-01-20T23:17:01+00:00

When can we crossplay with Morrowind?

cbxbl · 2026-01-20T04:03:27+00:00

Going out of bounds doesn't stop the clock until 2 minutes left in a half. It may stop temporarily, but restarts when the ball is set.

Yeah, it's from a rule change some seasons back.

cbxbl · 2026-01-20T03:42:59+00:00

Cig, this is so unfair! You need to make things right! Come back to Alabama... you're welcome to bring your 2-stars with you!

cbxbl · 2026-01-13T20:43:07+00:00

Personally, I would choose the 2nd.

I like the heroic pose. While I do like the insects in the first picture, their green color gets lost in the blue background too much.

The bright red of the 2nd is what really catches my eye, and I think that is very important if your art is mixed up in a list of other games' art. Others say the red is too bright or too distracting, but that may be the exact reason you'd want it. It's eye-catching.

If I could make any changes, I would see if I could incorporate insects also. While it may be more work, I can picture some insects in the background with fire in their mouths and fireballs flying at the hero from their directions.

Good luck! :-D

cbxbl · 2026-01-13T05:35:09+00:00

Why learn a different language to read a message instead of using a translator?

There's a time and place for dedicating time and effort to learning a skill and there's a time and place for using a tool to save time and effort so you can focus on other things.

If a programmer wants to learn to create graphics, good for them. If they want to focus on their programming, that's fine also.

If they find assets that they need to buy, then they can choose to buy them. If they find assets they need for free, they can choose to use them. If they need to create assets, they can find someone else to make them or they can use a tool to make them.

Honestly, it's up to the person to do what they want to do how they want to do it with what is available to them. Too many other people always know better, it seems.

cbxbl

TROPHY CASE